Appointments - Current Affairs for January, 2017

Appointments Current Affairs for January, 2017

Month wise coverage of Appointments Current Affairs helps you improve your general knowledge and prepare for all competitive exams like IBPS, Bank PO, SBI PO, RRB, RBI, LIC, Specialist Officer, Clerk, SSC, UPSC, Railway etc. This section is updated daily with the most important events.

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Supreme Court on Monday appointed a four-member panel of administrators led by former Comptroller and Auditor General of India Vinod Rai. This includes the legendary women test cricket player, Diana Edulji.

SC also appointed noted historian Ramchandra Guha and IDFC Ltd MD and CEO Vikram Limaye, who is expected to provide the committee with expertise in financial matters.

They will function as the new interim bosses of the BCCI. They will also run the day-to-day administration of BCCI till the Lodha reforms are fully implemented. This is until elections are held.

The BCCI CEO was in the driver's seat since the Supreme Court ousted former BCCI president Anurag Thakur and secretary Ajay Shirke in a January 2 order for stalling Lodha reforms.

He was ordered to submit a report to the new Committee detailing the level of compliance achieved by the BCCI and its members in adopting the Lodha recommendations upheld by the apex court on July 18, 2016.

The Lodha Committee secretary and advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan was asked to give the BCCI CEO a check-list of 16 timelines the Lodha panel had prepared for the BCCI and State associations to implement the reforms within the cricket body.

The CEO would consider the timelines to prepare his compliance report.

The Bench advised the BCCI to come up with a proposition of a respectable amount for the Supreme Court to consider as payment to the new administrators for services they would render.

Meanwhile, the Bench appointed Amitabh Choudhary and Anirudh Choudhary - both BCCI nominees - and Mr. Limaye to represent BCCI in the crucial ICC meet.

Nalanda University’s third chancellor will be Vijay Bhatkar, a well-known computer scientist.

He president of RSS-affiliated outfit Vijnana Bharati, which promotes ‘swadeshi’ science.

He was formerly chair of IIT Delhi’s board of governors.

The university’s newly-constituted governing board recommended Bhatkar’s name to the Visitor, President Pranab Mukherjee, who then approved the appointment on Friday, January 27.

Bhatkar’s appointment was confirmed after George Yeo, former Singapore foreign minister, resigned from the post in protest.

He said Indian government had not consulted him before making a series of decisions, including deciding:

Not to extend the term of the Nalanda Mentors Group-Governing Board,

Ending interim vice-chancellor Gopa Sabharwal’s extended term and

Determining the constitution of the new governing board.

Yeo had succeeded Nobel laureate Amartya Sen, after the latter withdrew himself from consideration for a second term, accusing the government of intervening in the university’s affairs.

Bhatkar led India’s supercomputing initiative by setting up the Center for Development of Advanced Computing in Pune in 1987, which is responsible for creating Param 8000 and Param 10000, India’s first supercomputers.

Bhatkar received a Padmashri in 2000 and a Padma Bhushan in 2015.

Niti Aayog vice-chairman Arvind Panagariya, ICCR president Lokesh Chandra and Arvind Sharma of McGill University are the new members of the board.

China and Thailand have re-nominated their members, while Laos and Australia are yet to confirm the names of their representatives.

N.K. Singh, former revenue secretary and Rajya Sabha member, was the only Indian nominee left out from the previous mentors’ group.

As per the statutes, the governing body has to recommend at least three names for appointment as vice-chancellor to the president.

About Nalanda University

Nalanda University in Rajgir, Bihar, is a cluster of multi-disciplinary schools.

Currently, the School of Historical Studies, School of Ecology and Environment Studies, and the School of Buddhist studies, Philosophy and Comparative Religion have admitted students.

Five more schools in linguistics, international relations, information science and technology, economics and management, and public health are also planned.

India had proposed the revival of Nalanda University at the East Asia Summit in 2007. This is showcasing the project to evoke India’s cultural linkages with the South East Asia and beyond.

Former Tiger Global executive Kalyan Krishnamurthy has been named the new CEO of Flipkart following managerial restructuring.

Binny Bansal has been moved to the newly created position of Group CEO. Krishnamurthy joined Flipkart in June 2016 as head of commerce unit.

Tiger Global is the largest shareholder and investor in the Bengaluru based company. Binny Bansal took over as CEO previously from co-founder Sachin Bansal who was named executive chairman for the group.

The newly formed organisation will focus on creating future value through a portfolio of new, high growth businesses, managing capital allocation across group companies.

Krishnamurthy will report to Binny Nansal along with Myntra Jabong CEO Ananth Narayanan, while Nithin Seth will be COO for Flipkart. Current Ekart CEO Saikiran Krishnamurthy will move to a new role.

At Indoor Stadium, many gathered for the induction of J&K chief minister Mehbooba Mufti's brother Mufti Tassaduq Hussain into PDP on 7th Jan 2016, the first death anniversary of their father Mufti Mohammad Sayeed.

Before the event, Hussain visited Sayeed's grave in Bijbehara. The Bengaluru-based cinematographer formally join the party. Tassaduq is likely to contest the bypoll for the Anantnag Lok Sabha constituency that fell vacant after Mehbooba took over as CM last year.

Tassaduq has worked on hit films like 'Omkara' and 'Kaminey'. PDP youth chief Waheed-ur-Rehman Parra said Tassaduq's plunge into politics would attract more youths into the political mainstream.

General Raheel Sharif, the former Pakistani army chief, will now head the Saudi Arabia-led 39-nation military coalition formed to serve as a platform for security cooperation and combat terrorism, the Islamic Military Alliance to Fight Terrorism.

The decision to appoint Gen (retd) Raheel, who retired in November 2016, was taken after taking the incumbent government into confidence and both the governments and army were on board regarding the decision to let Raheel take charge of the alliance.

Raheel retired as the army chief in November and has been succeeded by General Qamar Javed Bajwa.

According to Saudi Arabia, the alliance is formed to fight ISIS and other militant outfits. At the time of its constitution, there were 34 countries in the alliance which has raised to 39.

The countries include Turkey, UAE, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Tunisia, Sudan, Malaysia, Egypt, Yemen and others. The Joint Command Centre, headquarters of the military alliance, is based in Riyadh.

Islamabad was also part of the new alliance to combat militancy.

Iran was not included in the grouping which appeared as a vague attempt to forge a Sunni Muslim alliance against Shiite Iran to curtail its influence in Iraq, Syria, Yemen and rest of the Middle East.

The Saudi-led coalition is also engaged in a military operation in Yemen since March 2015 when Houthis drove out the government led by President Abdu Rabbu Mansour Hadi, who is believed to be in exile in Saudi Arabia.

US President elect Donald Trump has appointed an expert on strategic communications and political research, Raj Shah as his deputy assistant and research director on the White House staff.

Trump has also announced on 4th Jan 2016 that Shah would also hold the post of deputy communications director. Shah aided Trump's campaign by highlighting contradictions in Clinton's political positions and issues like her handling of the private email server.

Republican National Committee has credited him with developing the organisation's opposition research book on Hillary Clinton.

Reince Priebus has been announced as Trump's chief of staff.

Know More About Raj Shah

Research director and deputy communications director at the Republican National Committee.

Shah is also MD of America Rising.

His area of specialisation is opposition research.

He worked as a research assistant during George W.Bush's presidency.

He also worked in John McCain's 2008 unsuccessful presidential campaign against Barack Obama.

Tata Power has said that S Padmanabhan has been nominated as chairman of the board of directors of the company. S Padmanabhan, additional director on the company’s board, has been nominated as Chairman of the board of directors of the company effective January 4, 2017, Tata Power said in a BSE filing.

In December 2016, Mr. Padmanabhan was appointed the Additional Director.

Previously, he was the Executive Chairman, Tata Business Excellence Group (TBExG), and was recently given the additional responsibility as Head of Group HR for Tata Sons.

Mr. Padmanabhan has been associated with the Tata group for over 34 years.

The nomination comes against the backdrop of Cyrus Mistry’s resignation as director of the company in December.

Reserve Bank of India has appointed Smt. Surekha Marandi as the ED in place of US Paliway who retired on Dec 31, the bank announced on 3rd Jan 2016.

RBI handed over charge to Marandi who assumed office on 2nd Jan 2016. She will look afterConsumer Education and Protection Department, Financial Inclusion and Development Department, and Secretary's Department, as per an RBI release.

Previous posts held by Marandi include serving on Boards of United Bank and Bank of Baroda.

Prior to being promoted as ED, Marandi was Principal Chief General Manager and Chief Vigilance Officer in the Reserve Bank.

She has, over a span of three decades, served in regulatory and supervisory, financial inclusion and development and human resource management areas in the Reserve Bank.

Know More About Surekha Marandi

Surekha Marandi started her career with the RBI in May 1983 and has over 30 years of banking experience.

She has been working for various offices at the RBI, including departments of supervision, management services, information technology, human resources management, rural planning and credit.

Along with holding many positions in various capacities such as Banking Ombudsman, Maharashtra and Goa, she has been associated with various committees.

These are including committees on customer service, financial inclusion and education, financial stability and financial sector planning for the state of Chhattisgarh.

She has been a Non Executive Director of Bank of Baroda since June 10, 2014.

She served as a Nominee Director of United Bank of India from July 30, 2010 to March 13, 2014.

Marandi holds a Master's Degree in Arts from the Jadavpur University in Kolkata, West Bengal. She has trained at several foreign universities as well.

Preeti Sudan, an IAS officer of AP cadre 1983, has been appointed Secretary, Department of Food and Public Distribution in the Ministry of Consumer Affairs.

This follows the superannuation of IAS officer Ms. Vrinda Sarup.

Ms. Sudan had also served in various capacities in Union Ministries and Departments including WCD and MoD

In a career spanning 33 years, she has served in the Revenue Department, Disaster Management Department, Health and Family Welfare, Finance, Seeds/Agriculture Corporation.

Ms. Sudan is proficient in Hindi, English, Punjabi and Telugu.

Meanwhile, Shri Anoop Srivastava, a 1981 batch AS officer of Assam-Meghalaya cadre has taken over as Secretary in the Ministry of Tribal Affairs.

He was appointed OSD on Nov 2016 in the same ministry servinf in various other capacities as Secretary in the Departments of Official Language, Border Management, Ministry of Home Affairs, Additional Secretary and Special Secretary, Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, Joint Secretary in Ministries of Home Affairs and Finance.

In the States of Assam and Meghalaya, he served in various departments such as Agriculture, Health & Family Welfare, Public Health Engineering, Transport, Tourism, Power, Information Technology, Social Welfare, Animal Husbandry and Veterinary and Cooperation.He also served as Chief Electoral Officer of Meghalaya. Shri Srivastava has also served in two State PSUs. He also won the Web Ratna award 2009 in platinum icon category of National Portal Coordinator.

Chronology of events

Air Marshal SB Deo took over as Vice Chief of the Air Staff (VCAS) at Air HQ on Jan 2nd 2017;Air Marshal SB Deo was commissioned as a fighter pilot in the IAF on 15 Jun 79.

Air Chief Marshal Birender Singh Dhanoa took charge as the 22nd Chief of the Air Staff (CoAS) of the Indian Air Force (IAF).

General Bipin Rawat took charge as the new 27th Chief of Army Staff (CoAS) of India.

Justice Mian Saqib Nisar was sworn in as the 25th chief justice of Pakistan. He was administered the oath to the office by President Mamnoon Hussain.

Kerala-origin, Saudi-based entrepreneur Shaikh Rafik Mohammed, 42, has been appointed Major General of Kyrgyzstan, marking a first for an Indian in the Central Asian country.

Air Marshal Anil Khosla AVSM VM has taken over as Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief Eastern Air Command w.e.f Jan 2017.

IBM has appointed Karan Bajwa as Managing Director of its India operations with immediate effect succeeding Vanitha Narayanan, who has been elevated as chairman of IBM India.

Former USAID head Rajiv J Shah was named as president of the Rockefeller Foundation becoming the youngest person and the first Indian-American to lead the group.

US president-elect Donald Trump has named retired senator Dan Coats as his National Intelligence Director. He is former senator from the state Indiana who had served on the Senate Intelligence Committee.

Telecom operator Bharti Airtel today announced the appointment of Badal Bagri as Chief Financial Officer for its India & South Asia operations with effect from January 16, 2017.

German luxury carmaker BMW has appointed Vikram Pawah (45) as the President of India operations with effect from March 1, 2017.

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump on 12th Jan 2017 tapped former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani to advise his administration on cybersecurity.

The TCS board on 12th Jan appointed Rajesh Gopinathan as Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director of TCS effective February 21, 2017.

TCS has also named N Ganapathy Subramaniam (NGS), currently President, TCS Financial Solutions, as the President and Chief Operating Officer. He has been appointed as a director on the board.

Economic Affairs Secretary Shaktikanta Das has been granted a three-month extension, the government announced on 23rd Jan 2017. He was to retire in March.

The Senate confirmed the appointment of retired general James Mattis as secretary of defense making him the first member of Donald Trump’s cabinet cleared to take office.

Dr Gullapalli N Rao, Founder and Chair, L V Prasad Eye Institute, has been selected as one of two inductees for the prestigious 2017 Ophthalmology Hall of Fame instituted by the American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery (ASCRS).

Shri Birender Singh Yadav (1FS,1997), presently High Commissioner of lndia to Ghana, has been concurrently accredited as the Ambassador of lndia to the Republic of Burkina Faso, with residence in Accra.

Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar, whose tenure was to end on January 28, he got a one-year extension. The nod for the extension of his tenure till January 28, 2018 was given by the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet.

Denmark became the first country in the world to appoint a special “digital ambassador” in its administration to work on building ties with the globe’s tech giants.

Former high court judge Justice P Vishwanath Shetty was sworn in as the Karnataka Lokayukta on 30th Jan 2017.